Prior patents disclose an electrical brush contact intended to have fine wires inserted into a barrel and crimped to comprise a contact. For example, the U.S. patent of McKeown et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,725,844 discloses a hermaphroditic electrical contact wherein seven or more wires are crimped at one or more positions to secure the wires within the inner portion of a passage formed therein. As suggested in the above patent, the wires could be soldered or brazed into position so long as the wires are in electric circuit relationship with one another. The crimping operation may be performed by a well-known plier type tool that, when squeezed, applies pressure simultaneously to two pairs of diametrically opposed points of the contact to conform the contact wall to the wires within the contact.
Each of the contacts and the wires associated with such a contact are quite small (the contacts being about one-half of an inch long with a diameter of about 0.092 inches). Generally, electrical contacts are machined from metal stock and, because of their small size, the contacts are machined to tolerances of 0.002 inches or less. A contact which is oversize for any reason cannot be utilized because it may not be possible to insert such a contact into the contact receiving holes of a connector insert, or insufficient clearance between contacts could cause electrical and mechanical problems. Also, because such electrical contacts are generally machined from metal stock, the largest desired diameter of the finished contact determines the smallest diameter that the metal stock can be.
Machining of electrical contacts is expensive and because of the large number of contacts utilized by a connector and the attendant material costs, the connector is relatively expensive. Therefore, to reduce the cost of manufacturing a connector, material and machining costs should be kept to a minimum. Also, the cost of manufacturing the connector can obviously be reduced if the number of manufacturing steps to produce a contact is also reduced to thereby provide further savings. At the same time, the fine wires of the contact must be secured within the contact holder in such a way as to provide a good electrical and mechanical connection therebetween.